American Forests Not Coping With Climate Change

Study shows they're not migrating as expected
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 2, 2011 1:04 PM CDT
American Forests Not Coping With Climate Change
Forests aren't adapting to climate change as well as scientists had hoped.   (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Conventional wisdom has always held that America’s forests would shamble northward in the face of rising temperatures, but a new Duke University study shows that the majority of Eastern US tree species are remaining stubbornly, well, rooted in place. Almost 59% of species actually showed that their geographic ranges were contracting from both north and south, according to USA Today, with another 16% advancing southward. Only 21% are making the predicted migration northward. (More climate change stories.)

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